"Sometimes a franchise just has a big, black mark over it and no amount of wishful thinking can turn the tide..."-Jaap Still

"Brilliant use of an instructional picture book."-Kyle in Newport News

"Does Met$tra have a gambling problem?"-Erik Love

"Hasta la vista baby. I throw up the white flag."-Joe

"I'm still a fan, but enough is enough."-Meet the Mets

"I watch the grass grow - it's more exciting."-David

"Freaking Chipper Jones. I HATE Freaking Chipper Jones."-Dave Murray

"Good God man, what have you done??!! You've released the genie from the bottle. I see the showers and toilets backing up at Shea, emergency landings at LGA, unusual tides in Flushing Bay, and when they break ground for the new stadium the construction gang will unearth and disturb some ancient Indian burial ground for unlucky and cursed members of the Iroquois nation...Blaspheme no more Metstradamus! You are tempting the fates!"-The Metmaster

Monday, April 17, 2006

Way too many things happening at once here. It's almost like having one of those new Reeses Peanut Butter Cups with Caramel, and then putting some whipped cream on it...and sprinkles...and some of those semi-sweet chocolate chips. It's a sweet treat. But with all of these taste sensations in the same bite, it's impossible to enjoy every aspect of the new confection. So let's sort through it all one ingredient at a time.

Main ingredient...Petey's 200th career victory. Maybe it didn't take a game tying homerun in the ninth to provide your Hojo moment. But what we got was another chapter in the ongoing love story between Pedro Martinez and the Shea faithful. Chapter Two, verse three: The Milestone. Six and two thirds innings of Petey pitching his guts out, making sure that there wouldn't be a new round of questions every five days about "When are you going to win 200?" and "Are you feeling any pressure to get this out of the way?" Nope...all gone. And now Pedro can return to being the rock of the rotation, and beating the Braves.

Speaking of beating the Braves, here is our next ingredient. As I was watching the first Met at-bat of the night, and I saw Jose Reyes looking at two pitches down the middle and striking out swinging on a low curve ball, I have to admit that those "here we go again" thoughts crept in my head. Here go the Mets losing to the uniforms again.

So I came home. And wouldn't you know it, I turn on the tube and it's 4-2. Oh, I'm just being a worry wort. I mean, these are the new Mets...these are the Mets that are leaps and bounds better than a Larry-less and Edgar-less (not to mention a Maddux-less, Glavine-less, Sheffield-less) Braves team. There will be no losing to the uniform tonight.

Then Andruw Jones hit one to Mars.

Uh-oh.

But these are a different brand of Mets. The days of Pedro entrusting his potential victories to the likes of Braden Looper, Dae Sung Koo, and Danny Graves are long gone.

And that brings me to the next ingredient: The individual performances. The players that Omar brought here this off-season...all shining tonight. X? Another dinger of course. The guys from Friar Faithful seemed to have nailed it with their Free Nady Movement, as he has shown what he can do with regular time.

Carlos Delgado? A two run homer with would have provided the game winning RBI if there was such as statistic anymore. Delgado Travel has escaped all of the wonder about whether he really wanted to be here after shunning the Mets in the first place, about whether he was going to desecrate the American Flag in the middle of the outfield, and whether he was going to murder Tony Bernazard and dump his body in Flushing Bay. He got off to the all important quick start, and he's also turning out to be the Carlos that carries the lineup...something the other Carlos was expected to do (fairly or unfairly).

Filthy Sanchez? In dirt we trust.

(And heaven help me for slighting Paulie, who went three for three. In reality, he seems to be doing that every game, or making some sort of play that sends Jose Reyes from home to first. Not to mention his defense and his pitch calling. Remember, the Mets were the last team to have a starting pitcher go less than six innings...and this is a rotation that was supposed to have taken a serious hit. Give Mike Piazza's successor credit for that.)

So what is the cherry on top of the Sundae? The Mets are 10-2. First time ever. The back page is most assuredly theirs tomorrow (unless the Daily News or the Post decide to run their expose regarding Derek Jeter putting his pants on one leg at a time.)

All anybody can hope for now is that Victor Zambrano doesn't put the whole dessert in his mouth tomorrow so nobody else can taste it. Knowing Victor, he'd wear more of it than he'd actually eat.

7 comments:

this was one of the best games i have ever went to, if not the best... the thing i was waiting to hear the whole night was "Exit Light... Enter Night..." i got my wish, the mets won, and just in time for my bday... by the way check this out... im in the pinstripes all the way to the left... http://www.printroom.com/ViewgalleryPhoto.asp?userid=nymets&gallery_id=364341&image_id=29